ENV M1Cw –Ecoventions: Contemporary Art & the Environment

[Spring 2007]

Deena Capparelli & Claude Willey, Invisible Trajectories (2007), Buster Simpson, Vertical Landscape (1999); Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny
(2000); Phil Ross, Juggernaut (2004); Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels (1973-76)

Instructor: Emily Eliza Scott [scott@humnet.ucla.edu]

Time/Location: Tuesday 12-3pm in LaKretz 300A
Office Hours: Tuesday 3-5pm
Course Website: https://ecampusce.humnet.ucla.edu:443/public/geclstm1cw_sem3_07s/

DESCRIPTION
This seminar explores recent and contemporary art, primarily from within the United States, that critically engages
landscape, ecology, and other environment-related sciences and politics. As such, it is conceived as an intersecting
history of art and history of “the environment” in recent decades. We will investigate the extent to which visual artists, as
important cultural producers, have addressed and responded to pressing environmental issues, including pollution,
climate change, urban sprawl, biodiversity, ecological restoration, biotechnology, waste management, public health,
alternative energies, and sustainable design. Rather than claiming to offer a comprehensive survey of environment-
related aesthetic practices, the seminar is structured in thematic clusters and treats art as a communication device for
studying the environment.

In addition to exposing students to new material, this course aims to deepen understandings of topics covered in earlier
quarters of The Global Environment as well as to foster the active development of (visual) reading, writing, and oral
communication skills. As a seminar, it is designed very differently than a lecture-based course. I will function primarily as a
facilitator and the seminar as an interactive forum. Students are expected to complete readings in preparation for weekly
open-format discussions. (This means that readings must be finished prior to class each week!) We will spend roughly a
third of each class discussing assigned readings, a third looking at visual materials, and a third hearing student
presentations on specific artworks.

REQUIREMENTS
Students are required to post weekly discussion questions by noon each Monday that reflect close and thoughtful
attention to assigned readings, and which will largely form the basis for our group conversations. Once in the quarter,
each student will give a short visual presentation (10 minutes) on an individual art project, accompanied by an annotated
bibliography with at least three appropriate sources. And last, over the course of the quarter, students will develop a final
project consisting of a proposal for their own environment-based artwork OR exhibition. While this may involve a visual
component, it must include a 5-page mission statement and critical analysis of how the proposal is contextualized within
the framework of what we!ve studied.

GRADES
Discussion Questions 25%
Oral Presentation and Annotated Bibliography 20%
Final Project 30%
Participation 25%
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SCHEDULE
Week 1: Introduction/Overview (April 3)

Week 2: Art and Landscape, Part I: Imaging Landscape (April 10)

• On Reserve: This is the American Earth (1960); New Topographies: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape
(1975); Desert Cantos (1987); Ansel Adams/New Light: Essays on His Legacy and Legend (1993)
• Websites: Earth Observatory http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov Google Earth http://earth.google.com
• Readings:
o Bright, Deborah, “Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men: An Inquiry into the Cultural Meanings of
Landscape Photography.” The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography. Ed. Richard Bolton.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989. 125-143.
o Haip, Renee Ann. “Ansel Adams: Forging the Wilderness Idea.” Ansel Adams/New Light: Essays on His
Legacy and Legend. San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 1993. 74-83.
o Sontag, Susan. “In Plato!s Cave.” On Photography. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1973. 3-24.
o Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. “Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics.” Practices of
Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 10-44.
• Artists/Projects:
o Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, This American Earth (1960)
o Mark Klett, et. al., The Rephotographic Survey Project (1984)
o Richard Misrach, Desert Cantos (1987)
o Center for Land Use Interpretation (1994-present)
• EVENT: screening of Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (2001) on Monday, 4/16 @ 8pm in
West Coast Room, Covel Commons

Week 3: Art and Landscape, Part II: Into the Landscape (April 17)
• On Reserve: Earth Art (1970); Land and Environmental Art (1998); Earthworks: Art and the Landscape of the
Sixties (2002); One Place After Another: Notes on Site Specificity (2002)
• Readings:
o Beardsley, John. “Earthworks: the Landscape After Modernism.” Denatured Visions: Landscape and
Culture in the Twentieth Century. Eds. Stuart Wrede and William Howard Adams. New York: Museum of
Modern Art, 1991. 110-117.
o Boettger, Suzaan. “The Ground of Earthen Sculpture.” Earthworks: Art and the Landscape of the Sixties.
Berkeley: U of California P, 2002. 23-43.
o Kastner, Jeffrey and Brian Wallis, eds. “Preface” and “Survey.” Land and Environmental Art. London:
Phaidon Press, 1998. 10-43.
• Artists/Projects:
o Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking (1967)
o Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970)
o Ana Mendieta, the “Silueta” series (1979)
o Christo, Surrounded Islands (1980-83)

Week 4: Art and Landscape, Part III: Art as Remediation (April 24)
• On Reserve: Earth Works: Land Reclamation as Sculpture (1979); Revelatory Landscapes (2001); Groundswell:
Constructing the Contemporary Landscape (2005)
• Websites: EPA Superfund Sites http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites
• Readings:
o Finkelpearl, Tom. Interviews with Mel Chin and Dr. Rufus L. Chaney. Dialogues in Public Art. Cambridge
and London: MIT Press, 2000. 384-417.
o Reed, Peter. “Beyond, Before, and After: Designing Contemporary Landscape.” Groundswell:
Constructing the Contemporary Landscape. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2005. 14-32.
o Spaid, Sue. “Reclamation and Restoration Aesthetics.” Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies.
Cincinnati, Ohio: greenmuseum.org, The Contemporary Arts Center, ecoartspace, 2002. 109-30.
• Artists/Projects:
o Hans Haacke, Rhinewater Purification Plant (1972)
o Patricia Johanson, Leonhardt Lagoon (1981-6)
o Mel Chin, Revival Field (1990-93)
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o Field Operations, Lifescape (2002-present)

Week 5: Art and/as Science (May 1)

>>> Guest Speaker: Rachel Mayeri / artist, filmmaker, and programmer for Soft Science
• On Reserve: Mark Dion (1997); Weird Science (1999); Laboratorium (2001); Information Arts: Intersections of Art,
Science, and Technology (2002)
• Websites: Soft Science www.soft-science.org Rhizome www.rhizome.org UCLA ArtISci Center
http://artsci.ucla.edu/
• Readings:
o Bos, Saskia. “Introduction.” Hybrids. Amsterdam: De Appel, 1997.
o Gibbs, Wayt. “Art as a Way of Life.” Scientific American (April 2001).
o Kwon, Miwon. “Unnatural Tendencies: Scientific Guises of Mark Dion.” 38-41.
o Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. “Scientific Looking, Looking at Science.” Practices of Looking: an
Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 279-314.
• Artists/Projects:
o Peter Fend, Ocean Earth (1980-present)
o Brandon Ballengee, The Malformed Amphibian Project (1995-present)
o Mark Dion, Roundup: an Entomological Study of the Smart Museum (2000)
o Beatriz de Costa, Pigeonblog (2006)
• EVENT: screening of Rachel Mayeri!s Soft Science (1998-2004) and Heather Frazar!s Core Matters (2005) on
Tuesday, 5/1 @ 7:30pm in West Coast Room, Covel Commons

Week 6: Art and Ecology (May 8)

>>> Guest Speaker: Fritz Haeg / designer, radical gardener, and curator The GardenLAb Experiment
• On Reserve: Fragile Ecologies (1992); Concrete Jungle (1996); Ecovention (2002)
• Websites: Ecoartspace www.ecoartspace.org The GardenLAb Experiment www.fritzhaeg.com/garden.html
GreenMuseum www.greenmuseum.org
• Readings:
o Matilsky, Barbara. “Environmental Art” and “Ecological Art.” Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artists!
Interpretations and Solutions. New York: Rizzoli International, 1992. 36-58.
o Smith, Stephanie. “Introduction.” Ecologies: Mark Dion, Peter Fend, Dan Peterman. Chicago: Smart
Museum of Art, 2000. 24-29.
o Spaid, Sue. “Biodiversity.” Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies. Cincinnati, Ohio:
greenmuseum.org, The Contemporary Arts Center, ecoartspace, 2002. 65-88.
• Artists/Projects:
o Helen and Newton Harrison, Survival Pieces (1970-73)
o Joseph Beuys, I Like America and America Likes Me (1974)
o Center for Tactical Magic, Cricket-Activated Defense System (2000)
o Jennifer Monson, Birdbrain Dance (2000-present)
o Ruri, Archive – endangered waters (2003)
• EVENTS: Public-LA fieldtrip with Fallen Fruit www.fallenfruit.org and Bicycle Kitchen
http://www.bicyclekitchen.com/ on Wednesday, 5/9, AND fieldtrip to Center for Land Use Desert Research Station
www.clui.org and Moisture http://moisture.greenmuseum.org/ on Saturday, 5/12

Week 7: Art and (Bio)Technology (May 15)

• On Reserve: Hybrids (1997); Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom (2005)
• Websites: Genetics and Culture www.viewingspace.com/genetics-culture.htm Human Genome Project
www.genome.gov
• Readings:
o Cox, Christopher. “Of Humans, Animals, and Monsters.” Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the
Animal Kingdom. Ed. Nato Thompson. North Adams, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art, 2005. 18-25.
o Critical Art Ensemble. “Introduction: Contestational Biology” and “Transgenic Accidents.” Molecular
Invasion. New York: Autonomedia, 2002. 3-12 and 77-94.
o Delaney, Ben. “Art is Where You Grow It.” IEEE MultiMedia (January-March 2001): 4-7.
• Artists/Projects:
o Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny (2000)
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o Patricia Piccinini, Still Life with Stem Cells (2002)
o Natalie Jeremejenko, Zeewolde Ooz (2003)
o Critical Art Ensemble, Beatriz de Costa and Shyh-shium Shyu, Free Range Grain (2004)

Week 8: Art as Public Intervention/Activism (May 22)

• On Reserve: Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art (1995); Dialogues in Public Art (2000); The
Interventionists: Users! Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life (2004); Belltown Paradise / Making
Their Own Plans (2004)
• Websites: Free Soil www.free-soil.org LA Urban Rangers www.laurbanrangers.org Temporary Services
www.temporaryservices.org
• Readings:
o Finkelpearl, Tom. “Introduction: the City as Site.” Dialogues in Public Art. Cambridge and London: MIT
Press, 2000. 2-51.
o Lacy, Suzanne. “Introduction: Cultural Pilgrimages and Metaphoric Journeys.” Mapping the Terrain: New
Genre Public Art. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. 19-47.
o Thompson, Nato. “Trespassing Relevance.” The Interventionists: Users! Manual for the Creative
Disruption of Everyday Life. Eds. Nato Thompson and Gregory Sholette. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004.
13-22.
• Artists/Projects:
o Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Flow City (1985-present)
o Michael Rakowitz, paraSITE (2000)
o Nils Norman, GeoCruiser (2001)
o Lize Mogel, Public Green (2001-2)
o Joel Tauber, Sick-Amour (2007)

Week 9: NO CLASS

Week 10: Art as Design (June 5)

• On Reserve: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002); Strangely Familiar: Design and
Everyday Life (2003); Massive Change (2005); Beyond Green (2005)
• Websites: AZ www.zittel.org N55 www.n55.dk US Green Building Council www.usgbc.org West 8 www.west8.nl
• Readings:
o Blauvelt, Andrew. “Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life.” Strangely Familiar: Design and
Everyday Life. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2003. 14-37.
o Smith, Stephanie. “Beyond Green.” Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art. Chicago and New York:
Smart Museum of Art and Independent Curators International, 2005. 12-20.
• Artists/Projects:
o Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti (1970-present)
o Superflex, Supergas (1996-97)
o People Powered, Soil Starter and Loop (2002-present)
• EVENT: exhibition of final projects, details TBA!!!